Many varieties of orbital and belt sanders are well known to those skilled in the sanding art. These sanders have moving planar surfaces and perform very efficiently when sanding flat surfaces. However, these sanders are of limited utility when it is desired to sand curved surfaces or other surfaces that are inaccessible to a flat abrasive member. Concave and convex surfaces, grooves, score lines, beads and shutter slats are examples of objects which cannot be properly sanded using orbital or belt sanders.
It is known in the prior art to provide so-called profile sanders for sanding surfaces which are inaccessible to orbital and belt sanders. These prior art devices are both powered and manually operated.
An example of a powered profile sander is the Model 444 sander manufactured by Porter-Cable Corporation. The Model 444 profile sander includes a mounting plate which is detachably secured to the reciprocating member of the sander. A plurality of profile members, each having a portion configured to correspond to the contour of the surface to be sanded, are detachably secured one-at-a-time to the mounting plate. This tool is disadvantageous in that a separate mounting plate is necessary to attach a profile member to the tool.
An example of a manually operated profile sanding device is represented by the TADPOLE II sanding grips manufactured by Perfect Panel Products of Auburn, Wash. These sanding grips are not adapted for powered operation.
The Clamping mechanism of the present invention is particularly adapted for use with a sanding apparatus disclosed in application, Attorney Docket No. 960503, Ser. No. 08/675,244, filed Jul. 8, 1996, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. That application discloses a sanding apparatus having a flexible tubular member with an outer abrasive surface and a plurality of contour members. Each contour member has a cross-section defined by a first portion and a second portion. The first portion of each contour member has the same cross-sectional shape as the first portions of the other contour members; the second portion of each contour member has a cross-sectional shape which is different from the cross-sectional shape of the second portions of the other contour members. Each second portion includes a contour section configured to conform substantially to the shape of the work-piece to be sanded. Each contour member is adapted to be received one-at-a-time within the tubular member and is dimensioned such that the tubular member will be in a taut condition when the tubular member has one of the contour members received therein and (1) is clamped to the first portion of the contour member and (2) has the abrasive area thereof adjacent the contour section of the contour member brought into engagement with the work-piece to be sanded.